


Neutral Zone

by dreaminghigher (regencyaus)



Series: tumblr prompts [5]
Category: Inception (2010)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Bittersweet, M/M, friendships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-17
Updated: 2018-04-17
Packaged: 2019-04-23 23:45:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,969
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14343489
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/regencyaus/pseuds/dreaminghigher
Summary: Eames hated her. No, really, he did.He just wished they had less in common.For the prompt:“We’re in love with the same person. Friendships have been built on less common ground.”





	Neutral Zone

Eames hates her. No, really. He does.  

Her name is Ariadne. She's a junior, 17, one year younger than him. Class president and on the math club, and the drama club. And, most importantly, she's Arthur's best friend. They do all school projects together, always sit at the same table in lunch. Damn, half the times they as much as walk through the halls they're glued to each other's hips, chatting like the gossiping maidens that they envision themselves as. 

And, perhaps the worst part of it, she's in love with Arthur. Eames knows this because he sees the way she smiles at Arthur, the way she blushes when she talks to him, the look in her eyes when she's with him, which is the exact same look on Eames' own face everytime Arthur so much as fucking breathes. 

Eames very much hates her. 

Except she actually has a chance with Arthur. It's so fucking unfair, but she does, of course she does. She's everything. She's pretty, she's smart, she's funny, talks to the right people, is kind to everyone, and she _knows_  Arthur. She  _actually_  knows him. She's his friend, and she's on the same drama club and sits at his table and makes him laugh and Arthur knows she exists, not like Eames, the bloody football jock that Arthur never seems to give a second thought about. 

From the table in front of him in class she leans close to Arthur and whispers something that makes Arthur laugh, easy and carefree, dimples in full display as he leans and whispers something back. Eames really fucking hates her. 

She feels the weight of his stare and looks back at him. And when she notices it's him she flashes him a sweet smile, like the perfect human being that she is. 

Eames glares for all he's worth. 

She frowns at the ice in his stare and turns back around. Eames feels shitty for being rude, feels shitty for feeling shitty, and represses the urge to scream. 

*

From the moment Eames transferred, back in sophomore year, Eames has been in love with Arthur. And, from the moment Eames transferred, back in sophomore year, Arthur has proceeded to not give a single fuck about him. 

Wel, not from the moment precisely. Perhaps about fifteen minutes later. 

The very moment Eames transferred he was the new kid moving here from the UK, who was lost and could use a little help getting around. And Arthur was the brilliant,  _gorgeous_  kid who took a look at his schedule and smiled and said, hey, I think we're on the same class, and proceed to offer to show him around the school. Eames said yes right away, perhaps a little over enthusiastically, and he's embarrassed but Arthur just smiles and leads the way. The whole time Arthur has a faint blush on his cheeks, and is holding a backpack stripe pretty hard, and whenever Eames catches his gaze Arthur smiles a little, like something small that belongs just to Eames and Eames has the ludicrous,  _exhilarating_  thought that this is actually the start of something brilliant. 

And then Arthur mentions the clubs Eames could choose to join and Eames has to, of course he has to stick his foot in his mouth and say that "anything but the drama club should be fine," even though the drama club sounds  _awesome_ , because he doesn't want to look like a fucking geek, because he wants Arthur to think he's cool, and Arthur has to ask, carefully, "why?" 

"Because, it's stupid, innit? Bunch of condescending geeks trying to out ego each other and blow their own dicks." 

And Arthur obviously answers "of course you'd think the drama club is stupid. You can go for the football try-outs over there, try not to bully anyone on the way, or trip and lose whatever brain cells you have left," because Arthur is the fucking producer of the plays for the drama club, because he cares a lot about this, because he's had a lot of problems with sports jocks before and Eames sounded like his next nightmare, not that Eames knew at the time. And Eames would never, ever be the kind of asshole to be cruel to Arthur because of his hobby, or to call him a fag or mess with his things or be a general bully, but Eames is  _new_ , so he doesn't get that that's what Arthur is thinking and doesn't defend himself.  

So Eames doesn't know and he just sees Arthur completely shut down and he shuts down too, is cold right back at him, all through the next weeks, and by the time he finally understands and apologizing crosses his mind he sees Arthur laughing with this girl at lunch, stealing food from her plate and smiling and being happy, and Eames feels so completely out of place that he doesn't have the guts to say anything. 

* 

So, yeah. Eames hates her. And he doesn't think she's best friends with anyone else at the football team to be honest, so he really has no clue why she's sitting in the bleachers during practice later that day. But then again, she lives in an aura of sunshine and rainbows. Maybe she's just genuinely confused why Eames, or anyone, really, would glare in her general direction and wants to clear things up. And, now that Eames thinks about it, she is exactly the kind of person who would seek him after class to know if she has done anything or if everything is okay. Eames resigns himself for a conversation he really doesn't want to have. 

But he's not a coward. Much. So when they have a break he grabs his bottle of water and after only a mild panic he makes his way over to her. She immediately puts her backpack on her other side to make room for him, so he sits down and starts drinking his water. They're both looking at the field. Eames chugs down most of the bottle before she actually says anything. 

"I know you don't like me. I do. But I just, I don't think I ever did anything to you? So, I mean, if it's-" 

"Ariadne, it's fine-" 

"No, listen, if it's anything I'm doing you could tell me. I just wanna know what your problem is-" 

He thinks about saying it. 'I'm in love with Arthur.' Simple and quick. 'That's my problem.' Thinks about what her face would look like, about fucking getting this off his chest, about telling someone who knows the feeling, thinks about not having to lie so much about it. 

He sighs. 

"Ariadne." 

"Sorry, that come out harsher than I meant. It's just, you're not  _like this_ , you don't do this to anyone else so it has to be me but I haven't  _done_  anything to you so why." 

'I'm in love with Arthur,' he thinks. 

Quick and painless, and she'll leave you alone. 

"You haven't done anything. It's not like that." 

"But it has to be something, right? Damn. I'm not your enemy here. I just want to solve this before it could escalate because I seriously have no fucking clue-" 

Quick and painless, right? 

"I'm in love with Arthur." He says, before he can talk himself out of it. "I don't like you because you get to be close to him, which is something that I can't have." 

Fuck. 

What the  _fuck_  was he thinking? 

His heart is trying to beat right out of his chest. He's ready for anything, he tries to tell himself, he is, for a screaming match, for condensation. For  _disgust_. He can take it, he can. But he still doesn't expect the complete silence, or the moment it gets broken by Ariadne letting out a giggle. 

"God. Seriously?" 

Eames feels his cheeks heat. 

"Listen, I don't need you fucking laughing at me-" 

"No, wait, Eames, it's just. Jesus. Arthur thinks you hate him." 

Eames feels his blush deepen, out of anger, embarrassment, a suffocating combination of both. 

"Arthur doesn't know I exist, it's not the same thing." 

Ariadne looks at him with a small, sad smile. "Of course he knows you exist. But he really thinks you hate him, it embarrasses the shit out of him." 

Eames doesn't know how he's supposed to process this. 

"But." He starts "Why would he think that?" 

Ari shrugs. "He was rude to you on your first day. He said he thought you were one of those brainless jocks, and by the time he realized you weren't a bully and get straight A's he had been super rude and was too embarrassed to apologize." 

Eames looks down, plays with the cap on the water bottle for a moment. 

"I was the one rude to him actually." He says. "About the drama club. Which I actually would have loved to join. I didn't have the guts to apologize." 

Ariadne looks away, shakes her head a little. 

"That was over a year ago. Did neither of you ever hear of talking to each other?" 

There's something sad about her. Like she's talking to him but her mind is a little elsewhere. Eames knows the feeling. 

"You're in love with him." He points out, doesn't quite make it into a question. 

"Yeah," she answers anyway. 

He takes a deep breath. 

"If you still want to join the dra-" she starts, at the same time that he says, 

"If you're gonna give me some-" 

They both stop. She gestures for him to go on. 

"Listen," he tries again, slower this time, "if you're gonna give me some kind of cautionary tale about how I should stay away, trust me, I get it, so you should just spare us both the trouble-" 

"Why the fuck would I do that?" 

Eames pauses. 

"...you're in love with him." Eames finds himself pointing out again. 

"Yeah." 

Eames makes a gesture that is supposed to encompass that. She gives him a bare hint of a smile. 

"I don't own him. I can't make his decisions for him." She looks away, pushing down a hurt that seems to be old for her. "I can't make him choose me," she says, and tries to shake out of it. "If you still want to join the drama club, you can. I don't think Arthur will mind. And everyone else too, they'll all be happy to have you there." 

Eames just looks at her, feels a beat pass by in silence, and then another. 

"Why would you help me?" He asks finally, small. 

"Exclusively for my drama club interests." He narrows his eyes at her. She flashes him a grin "Because you seem like a cool guy, and we could actually use another member for the club. Even if you don't get a main part, we always need extras for the play, and people to build the sceneries." 

He doesn't know how to answer that. 

"Hey," she pokes him. "We’re in love with the same person. Friendships have been built on less common ground." 

That actually gets a startled laugh out of him. He looks at her, and she smiles, and in that moment there's a quiet sort of understanding between them. 

Sure. 

It's gonna hurt. 

They can't both get what they want. But they don't have to be enemies. 

She stands up and grabs her backpack. "Practices are Tuesdays at three. Show up for the next one, okay? Arthur will like it. You'll have a space there, if you want." 

"Alright." 

"See you around, Eames." 

"You too." 

Just before she leaves, he calls her back. "Hey, Ariadne?" 

She looks back. 

"Thank you," he says, and finds that he means it. 

She salutes him. It's melancholic. He doesn't think he looks much different. 

"Don't be late on Tuesday," she says finally. "Good luck." 

**Author's Note:**

> TBC maybe lol
> 
> tumblr at [dreaminghigher](https://dreaminghigher.tumblr.com)


End file.
